Dynamic mechanical properties of polypropylene–polyamide blends: Effect of compatibilization

Abstract

Abstract The influence of compatibilization on the dynamic mechanical properties of polypropylene (PP) binary blends with polyamide‐11 (PA) has been investigated. In the blends an acrylic acid functionized PP was used as a blend component and compared with nonfunctionized PP over the who concentration range. The results demonstrate that the use of the functionized PP instead of the unmodified one produced blends with different dynamic mechanical properties due to adhesion enhancement between the two phases. The storage moduli E′ of the compatibilized blends vary nearly linearly as a function of composition over a broad temperature region, whereas those of the noncompatibilized ones deviate greatly from linearity, specially at about 50/50 ratio, at which a minimum exists at about room temperature. While the dynamic testing gives no evidence for the variation in the glassy transition temperatures (peak maxima) of the components (PP and PA) in the two types of blends, both the loss modulus ( E″ ) and the loss factor (tan δ) data indicate that the compatibilized blends differ from the noncompatibilized ones mainly in the glassy transition (βrelaxation) process of the PA phase, suggesting that the compatibilization of the blends seems to influence the PA phase more than the PP phase included. But, for the β‐relaxation behavior of the PA in the modified blends, the tan δ spectrum shows a more complex pattern than does the E″ . These results are discussed in terms of the morphological texture of the blends and possible chemical or physical interactions between the two consituent polymers.